You Can't Do That

Only two months after the Beatles exploded onto the American scene by appearing on his Sunday night television program, Ed Sullivan journeyed to England to interview the boys personally while they were in the midst of shooting their first feature film.  The interview had to be rescheduled a day later than planned, however, due to the fact that the group needed to report to Abbey Road Studios to record the newly written title song at the very last minute.  Sullivan was finally granted a few minutes with them between shots on April 17th, 1964.  Possibly because it was so brief, United Artists gave him a clip from the film to air along with the interview on the May 24th edition of his show.  This clip turned out to be more exclusive than anyone imagined, because it showed the Beatles miming to their recent B-side You Can't Do That in the concert near the end of the film, and this sequence was subsequently cut before the movie's release. 

Before being issued as the B-side to Can't Buy Me Love, You Can't Do That had indeed been written for the film's soundtrack.  But the need to rush release a new single took precedence in late February.  On the 25th of that month, they added a few overdubs to the A-side, then concentrated on Lennon's rocker.  There were two important changes to their usual lineup on the backing track.  First, John had decided that he wanted to play lead guitar on the track. Though that relegated George to playing rhythm, he did so on his newly acquired 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, giving a fuller, richer sound to his opening guitar riff.

Take six can be heard on Anthology 1.  John sings alone, sounding somewhat flat when he hits the word "green" in the bridge each time.  By take nine - the master - Paul and George had added their fantastic backing vocals, even singing during John's great, stinging guitar solo.  John then double-tracked his lead vocal in each bridge, Paul overdubbed a cowbell, Ringo played bongos, and the track was complete.  

Producer George Martin made mono mixes for both sides of the single and sent them off to Capitol Records in the USA the next day.  Capitol was allowed to issue the single on March 16th, four days before it was released in the UK.  The American label also soon added the song to The Beatles' Second Album, which came out on April 10th.  Since the song was omitted from the movie, Parlophone placed it on the non-soundtrack side of A Hard Day's Night when that album appeared in the UK in July.

The Beatles promoted You Can't Do That by playing it on the television programs Ready Steady Go and Top of the Pops, as well as on several BBC Radio series.  The last of these, for the new show Top Gear, can be heard on On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  The song was also featured in their set list throughout 1964.  A version from August 23rd of that year was added to the revised lineup of the album Live at the Hollywood Bowl in 2016.

Aside from the releases listed above, the only other appearance of the song on a post career compilation was on the 1976 double album Rock and Roll Music.

As for the clip of the boys performing the song in the movie, it remained unseen for thirty years after it was broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Then, in 1994, to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film, a documentary called "You Can't Do That" The Making of A Hard Day's Night featured commentary from Phil Collins, who was among the young audience members at the shoot on March 31st, 1964, at the Scala Theatre.  The future Genesis frontman had a strong memory of the experience and had always wondered why the song had not been featured in the film.  It turns out that the concert sequence was considered to be too long when the film was being edited, so it was decided that one song had to be cut.  This documentary, and the rough cut of the song from the original footage, is now available on the Criterion collection's 50th anniversary DVD of A Hard Day's Night from 2014.